PREVIEW: FOREST GREEN

After winning his first game in charge against Morecambe last weekend, Gabriele Cioffi will take his Crawley Town side on the road as they make the trip to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday.

Forest Green are one of just two sides still unbeaten in Sky Bet League Two, but have won just twice this campaign, with their other six games ending in draws. Their last match saw them share the spoils in a 1-1 draw at MK Dons.

Crawley will look to make it three consecutive league wins for the first time since February.

HEAD TO HEAD

Crawley have a reasonably good record against the Gloucestershire side, winning seven and drawing four of the previous 16 meetings. Albeit, just two of those meetings have come in the Football League, thanks to Rovers’ promotion at the end of the 2016/17 season.

Last season, Forest Green won 2-0 at the New Lawn as Christian Doidge and Reuben Reid secured the win inside the opening half an hour.

Thomas Verheydt scored the Reds goal in a 1-1 draw in the return fixture at the Broadfield Stadium, equalising after Doidge’s opener.

We’ve had some tasty fixtures with FGR in our non-league days. In August 2010, just three weeks into our title winning season, Matt Tubbs scored the winning penalty in a 1-0 win at the Broadfield. However, that wasn’t the whole story as the second half saw a whopping four red cards – two for each side.

ONE TO WATCH

Forward Reuben Reid has been influential for Rovers since joining in January of this year from Exeter City. With three goals already this term, he sits top of their scoring charts after the departure of Christian Doidge to Bolton Wanderers. Originally part of the Plymouth Argyle youth set up, he went on to play for the Pilgrims on four separate occasions, amongst spells at several other Football League clubs.

Now in his second season at the New Lawn, Reid is a player the Reds should be wary of on Saturday. He’s got form against Crawley, scoring the first goal in Rovers’ 2-0 win in Gloucestershire last season.